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The Astros left fielder often stands at the edge of the Crawford Boxes, on the center-field side, because the Astros believe if a ball is hit in the air to the left, it’s either going to be a home run or bang off the fence, or have enough loft that the left fielder will have the time to run it down. And by playing at the corner of the Crawford Boxes on the center-field side, the left fielder is assured of direct access to the drives that are hit into the area of the cutout. If the left fielder is positioned in the typical spot in Minute Maid and a ball is hit into that recessed section, then the left fielder has to turn the corner of the Crawford Boxes in pursuit. More and more, visiting teams have mimicked the way the Astros position their left fielders -- an alignment that paid off when Gonzalez threw out Bird, after having a better angle to close on the hit and make a throw home.

Only four teams in the 162-game era have won 109 games in a single season; the Astros are on pace to win 109 games, and the Dodgers are on pace to win 110. There’s been a lot of thrilling baseball played through the first half of the season, but these months have belonged to the Astros and Dodgers. It’s too early to say that they are guaranteed to meet each other in the World Series, but barring any significant injuries, it’s hard to imagine too many teams mounting a defense against either of them (glares at the Cubs). If you want to start getting excited about the prospect of Kershaw facing the Astros’ lineup in Game 1 of the World Series, you can’t be blamed.

Due to the infrequent addition of members into the 50 home run club, Baseball Digest called it "a restrictive fraternity comprising slugging elite" [21] in 1954, when there were only six members. Of the seventeen members eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame , eight have been elected and three were elected on the first ballot. Eligibility requires that a player has "been retired five seasons" or deceased for at least six months, [22] disqualifying four active players and five players who have been retired for less than five seasons. Some believe the milestone has become less important with the large number of new members; [23] [24] fifteen players joined the club on a total of 24 occasions from 1995 to 2010. [6] Additionally, several of these recent members have had ties to performance-enhancing drugs . [25] [26] [27] [28]